EU Bee Partnership

CONTEXTE

• Decline in biodiversity throughout Europe• Beekeepers and their associations require information to present their

concerns to authorities, influence decision-making, and seek for references on their practices and production

• EU institutions (e.g. EFSA) require bee data for their activities • Launch of the EU Bee Platform in 2017:

• Terms of Reference: https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/sp.efsa.2018.EN-1423

• Objective: improve data collection, management, sharing and communications to achieve a holistic approach to the assessment of bee health in Europe and beyond

SOURCES OF BEE-RELATED DATA• EU projects: datasets from

PoshBee, Insignia, B-Good, STEP + national projects + COLOSS + Epilobee

• Smart bee hives - sensors• Beekeeping management

apps/monitoring initiatives• Biodiversity of bees and breeding• DARs, and RARs• Weather, Soil occupation, etc.• Market data for bee products

EU Bee PartnershipDuring the first 12 months, the EUBP focus on data standardisation, collection, processing and communication, using a ‘Proof of Concept’ (PoC) approach

2 PoCs on the way:

BeeXML - standardisation of bee dataThe Bee Hub - data collection, management, sharing and communication

Funding:

Short-term: support the proposed ‘proof of concept’ on data sharing through in-kind contribution by stakeholdersLong-term: to allowthe EU Bee Partnership to sustainably address data sharing for the benefit of bee health

BIG DATA• Big data enables better more robust analytics

• Quality, Quantity and Relevance all matter when it comes to data

• Breadth and Consistency also matter• What matters most is the free exchange of data, the

ability to put relevant anonymized data together, and merge it with secondary data (weather, crop outcomes, etc) for deep analysis

• Can also allow for better reporting for policy makers and governmental decision making

BEEXMLThe Promise of Standardized Data

Proof of Concept (PoC) for a standardisation of bee data

BEEXMLApimondia Working Group #15 (AWG15) Standardization of data on bees and beekeeping

Robert Brodshneider,Ph.D Joseph Cazier, Ph.D (Presenting) and his team

Walter HaefekerPeter Neumann, Ph.D

Marten SchoonmanNoa Simon Delso, Ph.D DVM

James T. Wilkes, Ph.DPim Van Gennip

BEEXML

• To promote standardized ways for exchange of data in all systems tracking bees and beekeepers.

• Make all systems open source to allow community to understand and get comfortable with what is being processed.

Common Language and Standard

DATA TAXONOMY

BEEXML = Common Language and Standard

• Obviously the first agreement we have implicitly made is that the exported data would be provided in XML format

• To be universally understandable, the proposal for the standard would use english element names for the minimum data set

• Optimal minimal set of data:• hive data require a hive ID• location• date and time of the observation• source of the data

STATE OF THE ART

APIMONDIA MONTRÉAL (Sept 2019)

meeting of the Apimondia Working Group #15 (AWG15) - Standardization of data on bees and beekeeping. STEPS:

1. create a minimal BeeXML dataset2. Identification of commonalities in databases, e.g. Date, Hive ID, Apiary ID,

Observer, Recorder3. Agree on definitions: e.g. what is a colony?

NEXT MEETING - Next week in Munich!!

THE BEE HUBProof of Concept (PoC) for an integrated big data

platform on pollinators

THE BEE HUBInitiative of BEELIFE European Beekeeping Coordination - www.bee-life.eu

Noa Simon DelsoData interpretation

Data gathering

Gregor SusanjBee Hub architect

and developer

Andrés SalazarData communication and

accessibility

THE BEE HUBEuropean (even worldwide) platform that integrates any relevant data

linked to pollinators which specialises in bees.

A user-friendly and accessible platform to monitor the status of pollinators in real-time.

Rationale and objectives

• Useful and effective tool in data gathering/sharing/processing/ communication

• Its focus relies on a non-profit, open, accessible scheme• Collaborative tool in which beekeepers, monitoring device producers,

institutions and/or research centres see a new level of cooperation• Interdisciplinary approach, reliable and objective• Starts simple and in the future it aims to integrate any bee-related data• End users:

• Field practitioners: beekeepers, veterinarians or naturalists.• Researchers• General public• Policy makers • Industry

Data integrationPoC integrates:

• Two initial sources from beehive digital monitoring (LIVE DATA)• Data from IoBee field tests (BE,

FR, IT, RO, ES, SE) - Arnia• Data from CARI and Dannish

beekeepers (BE, DK, SE, FI) -CAPAZ

• Two other sources of data (STATIC DATA)• COLOSS data - Belgium• varroa counts -

bienengesundheit.at

Factors affecting bee health and interesting to be integrated. Source: Simon Delso 2017

Privacy and data management• Not interested in personal data of the data owners • A tool of integration and visualization of bee related data,

but does not own the data itself• Data owners decide if they want to share the data or when to share the

data• Data owners are informed about what is done with their data• Data owners can provide feedback anytime on the use of their data by

the Bee Hub

• Data could be available to researchers, governments and commercial organization under a common license agreement, with knowledge sharing back to the bee community

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIESOpportunities• Analysis and reporting of data for better decision making• Development of the Genius Hive• All can learn from the anonymized data • Efficiency in data sharing

Challenges• Commercial incentives are to own the data, likely leading to near monopoly

control if one group owned all the data (e.g. Google)• Agreement on that standard, and what is important to collect• Lack of APIs developpement• Privacy Issues

Following steps

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

BEEXML - Marten schoonman (mjl.schoonman@gmail.com); Joseph Cazier

(cazierja@appstate.edu)

THE BEE HUB - Noa Simon Delso (simon@bee-life.eu), BeeLife (info@bee-life.eu)